Jordi Roca taught some of the techniques that led Restaurant magazine to describe him as part chef, part architect, part magician during a master class for a dozen student chefs at the International Culinary Center in New York.

For chef Jordi Roca of world-renowned restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, culinary creativity and experimentation means viewing ingredients with fresh eyes. “We’ll look at an artichoke as if it came from another planet,” he said through an interpreter while teaching a master class at the International Culinary Center on Monday.

“We do a full study of the ingredient, and then we start experimenting with it,” he said. In a vanilla bean, for example, Roca tasted hints of black olives in the skin, along with caramel notes. He decided to incorporate caramelized olives, black olive oil, dried olives and caramel gelatin into one of the restaurant’s desserts.

Chef Jordi Roca of Spain demonstrates his technique for making a beet out of sugar during Mondays master class at New York Citys International Culinary Center.

With a roughly 50-seat capacity and an 11-month-long waiting list, El Celler de Can Roca is one of the world’s top culinary destinations. Last year, it took the No. 1 spot on Restaurant magazine’s influential list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, with Copenhagen’s Noma reclaiming the top ranking this year.

Roca, who has experimented extensively with foods and fragrance, demonstrated a number of complex techniques to the class, including how to create a blown-sugar sculpture—shaped into a beet. Roca said the restaurant employs two people whose sole job is to create these types of sculptures—about 100 to 110 pieces per service. He also showcased a “breathing” sourdough ice cream dessert—an apparent favorite of Facebook 'sMark Zuckerberg—that undulated like a living organism (see video below).

The beet sculpture made of blown sugar, complete with stem and ‘dirt’

Robin Kawakami/The Wall Street Journal

Experimentation at El Celler de Can Roca often begins in the Roca Lab, a small kitchen the brothers opened about seven months ago. There, the team is encouraged to write ideas down anywhere—even on the ceiling. Finished dishes are tied to 16 concepts: memory, academia, product, landscape, wine, tradition, chromatism, sweet, innovation, poetry, boldness, magic, sense of humor, freedom, perfume and transversal creation (a way of creating using everything they’ve learned).

“Every Tuesday we have what we call ‘Creativity Tuesday,’” said Roca. “If someone comes up with something new, this is where we discuss it. And we also invite people that don’t necessarily come from the culinary world, like industrial designers, graphic designers, people that can help us add a different vision to our dishes and to our creations.”

Jordi Roca assembled this ‘mandala’ dish, which contains a flower in the central made of artichoke petals.

Robin Kawakami/The Wall Street Journal

Roca views the tour as an opportunity to discover new pathways for the restaurant’s cuisine. “We’re learning and searching for new ways of creativity, new references to different kinds of cuisine,” he told Speakeasy in a separate interview.

While he cites his own Girona as a hotspot for culinary innovation, Roca also recognizes New York’s impact as a melting pot of different cultures. “There’s all these different influences,” He said. “It’s very interesting to see how those are mixed so harmoniously.”

While in New York, Roca has made it a point to stop at a couple of top restaurants. “I was lucky to dine at Eleven Madison [Park] with Daniel Humm–he’s a master,” said Roca. “Also at Atera, where they offer a really fun and creative cuisine. These chefs are fantastic friends and it was really a pleasure to go to their restaurants.”

Roca plans to write a pastry book, perhaps starting after the tour wraps up. “I’m going to take my time,” he said. “I basically want to compile all the work that I’ve done over the years in pastry.”

As for the future of El Celler de Can Roca, which was born from a family tradition in the restaurant business, Roca says the next generation is still too young for the brothers to think about passing the baton. “Joan’s son is 17 and he wants to make a career in politics—that might help us in the culinary world,” he said, laughing. “As for Josep, his son is 15. He’s interested in pastry; sometimes he steps in the kitchen and helps us out.”

“But for now, it’s us,” Roca said. “We’re still continuing to work with the same enthusiasm as brothers, the three of us.”

About Speakeasy

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